A usability evaluation of the Jaxx and Cryptonator cryptocurrency wallets

Summary

A cryptocurrency wallet (or crypto wallet) enables users to feasibly send, receive, and monitor their digital currency by storing private and public keys and interacting with various blockchain components. If you want to use Zcash or any other cryptocurrency, you will need to have a digital wallet.

We recommend both Jaxx and Cryptonator as great crypto wallet options. The reason why we evaluated Jaxx and Cryptonator is because we wanted to make them even better. Most crypto wallets are in early phases of implementation and adoption, so we suspect that any issues found here with Jaxx and Cryptonator are likely present in other crypto wallets as well. If you’re a developer for another crypto wallet, we recommend reading this case study, and checking that these issues are addressed in your wallet!

Both crypto wallets enable the user to send, receive, and exchange Zcash in an intuitive way. We found that Jaxx (v. 1.2.17) onboards its users well and is easy to setup and use, but is missing some user feedback when transactions fail. Cryptonator (v. 2.0.3) has lots of security measures such as email verification, device verification, and PIN, but this makes it hard to set up and navigate.

Evaluation and testing

We first examined the application and its interface from a user experience designer’s standpoint, and give out evaluation of each screen:

Screen

Cryptonator

Jaxx

Landing screen

It shows you a list of your wallets and your balances (image). To send transactions, you need to go back a couple screens and find the appropriate menu.

It sends you to one of your wallets directly, and shows your balance, transactions, and allows you to send and receive transactions in one click. (image)

Recommendations

For all crypto wallets: think about not just what the user should input or do, but all possible inputs and interactions a user can do. And if any of those are invalid, prevent users from making mistakes by filtering inputs and disabling interactions.

For Jaxx: users are bound to make some mistakes, so help them through it. Alert users when a transaction failed to go through, and tell them what happened (the request was canceled, we will retry sending the transaction), and give them instructions on how to fix their issue if applicable (re-check your internet connection, check the address, etc).

For Cryptonator: a long and task-heavy setup process will turn away most of the users before they start using your application. Get users to the wallet first, then guide then through the security steps and verify their accounts later. A good policy is to ask them to verify their device right away, ask them to verify an account hour to a day after they create their crypto wallet, and to ask if they want to enable additional security features (PINS, key backup, etc) after a set amount of use.

We contacted both companies, and they have been receptive to the feedback. We look forward to making these, and other crypto wallets better in the future with further evaluation and testing.